Forces loyal to Libya’s internationally recognised government captured the last major stronghold of eastern commander Khalifa Haftar near Tripoli yesterday, capping the sudden collapse of his 14-month offensive on the capital. Military sources in Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) said their forces had withdrawn from the town of Tarhouna. They headed towards Sirte, far along the coast, and the airbase of al-Jufra in central Libya. The advance extends the control of the Government of National Accord (GNA) and allied forces across most of northwest Libya, reversing many of Haftar’s gains from last year when he raced towards Tripoli. The GNA has been backed by Turkey, while Haftar, whose LNA still controls the east and oil fields in the south, has been supported by Russia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.

Three dead, 7 wounded in

China market stabbing

Three people were killed and seven wounded in a stabbing spree at a supermarket in rural southeast China, police said yesterday. The suspected attacker, a 35-year-old man, was arrested shortly after the incident late Thursday in Fujian province, they said in a statement, without specifying the kind of weapon used. The injured were in stable condition in hospital, they added. The attack came hours after 39 pupils and staff were wounded in a knife attack at a rural primary school in south China’s Guangxi region. The attacker, reportedly a 50-year-old security guard at the school, was apprehended. Violent knife crime is not uncommon in China, where firearms are strictly controlled, with a number of similar attacks at schools in recent years.

Trump shares letter that

calls protesters ‘terrorists’

President Donald Trump on Thursday shared a letter on Twitter that referred to the peaceful protesters who were forcibly dispersed from a park near the White House on Monday evening as “terrorists.” The letter from veteran attorney and former Trump lawyer John Dowd appears to be addressed to former Secretary of Defense James Mattis and rebuts Mattis’ Wednesday statement castigating Trump’s response to the nationwide protests after the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer.”The phony protesters near Lafayette were not peaceful and are not real,” Dowd’s letter claimed, without citing any evidence. “They are terrorists using idle hate filled students to burn and destroy.” CNN has reached out to the White House for comment on the description of the protesters as “terrorists.”

US conducts first air strikes

against Taliban since truce

The US conducted its first air strikes against the Taliban since a rare ceasefire between the insurgents and Afghan forces ended more than a week ago, the US military said yesterday. The two assaults took place on Thursday and Friday in separate provinces in Afghanistan, spokesman Sonny Leggett said on his Twitter account.